I feel that the car has gotten slightly peppier, but this might just be my imagination since the engine sounds less stressed.
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It’s been 8 months since we bought the Hycross ZX(O) and it has taken us to a lot of places with no drama. Took the car in for its 10k service last week.
It has been your average stress-free Toyota ownership experience. Still, I’m very meticulous when it comes to our cars so I made a little list of things I had noticed and wanted to get looked at.
We booked the service at the dealership we bought the car from, which is about an hour away. I had built a rappart there and their service techs had proven to be competent. We dropped the car off, had a coffee, took the fresh-faced new hire around the car showed him the issues I was facing and asked for a wheel alignment in addition to the jobs covered in the service package. He managed to rope me into doing wheel balancing and tyre rotation along with the alignment. I normally don’t bother but sure, why not, it’s just 500 extra. Also had a friendly chat with the salesperson who sold us the car and the senior service advisor who had taken care of my 1000 kms service.
I took an auto to the nearby mall since it would take a few hours for them to complete the job; they do some testing and jot down readings from the hybrid battery since it’s a newly launched product. While wandering around aimlessly, I get a call from the senior service advisor telling me that there is something wrong with the rear brakes.
- Advisor: “You mentioned a noise from the rear brakes, right?”
- Me: “Yeah, I think it is just from the rust buildup since the brakes aren’t used much in a hybrid. Figured I would mention it anyway just in case”
- Advisor: “Well we opened it up as part of the inspection and your rear brake pad is broken”
- Me: “What do you mean by broken?”
- Advisor: “It’s actually quite strange, it’s cracked and we can’t even remove it from the calliper. I have never seen anything like this before. We would like to keep the car to collect details to send to Toyota and learn more”
- Me: “Ahhh but I have to attend a wedding with my family tomorrow. Can I take the car home and drop it off again on Monday?”
- Advisor: “Oh no, it really shouldn’t be driven in this condition at all”
- Me, thinking back to 2 hours ago when I was doing triple-digit speeds on the highway: “Hmm, can I get a loaner car?”
- Advisor: “Yeah, let me check what’s available.”
I decide it’s time to go back to the dealership so I hop in an auto and head back.
I meet the senior service advisor and ask him for more details. “Okay, so it’s your left-side rear brake pad that is damaged. Have you noticed anything while driving?”
Me: “No, but I have noticed the electronic parking brake rusting stuck when parked overnight after driving in the rain or after washing. It makes a jarring noise and the car jerks for a moment the next morning. But after that, the brakes work fine”
Advisor: “So we went through our database and there is only one similar case. It happened to a Lexus sedan with electronic parking brakes.
I’m guessing it has something to do with the electronic parking brake since the motors can squeeze the brakes way harder than a human could”
Well, that made sense to me, since I knew the Hycross uses a caliper-integrated electronic parking brake. There are 2 actuators, one for each rear brake calliper. They squeeze the rear brake pads when activated and are the source of the mechanical whirring noise you hear when you pull the parking button. The personnel at this dealership has been really professional so far so I didn’t bother asking to see the brakes. A luxury you can seldom afford these days.
Advisor: “But you didn’t notice anything while driving or while braking? No changes in handling or feelings of losing control?”
“Ah so uh…. let’s just talk about how we can fix this”
Advisor: “Alright so normally brake pads are not covered under warranty since it’s a wear and tear item. However, the wear here is well within limits so it is not due to usage. It will take a few days to get the parts and for Toyota to approve the claim so you will get your car in 3 days.”
Me: “Ah that’s alright. Now what loaner car do you have for me?”
Advisor: “We can give you a diesel Crysta as that’s all we have available now”
None of us were very happy with the thought of taking a white Crysta to a wedding at the Hyatt. I didn’t want to look like I was driving a taxi and tried my best to sweet-talk our way into a Fortuner.
It didn’t work, but hey, no harm in trying
Anyway, I was led to a white Crysta Z automatic. It was 2 years old and had run 35k kms. It was in surprisingly good condition and was neat and clean. I was also offered a base model Hycross petrol which was one of their test-drive cars. I thought about it, and I chose the Crysta since I figured it would be interesting to see what the cult favourite would be like after getting accustomed to my Hycross ZX(O).
I had written a lot about how Crysta was but this post is getting too long so I deleted it. It took a few days longer than expected to get the parts so I ended up driving the Crysta for a whole week. It was a very interesting experience and I will share it if people are interested.
Skip forward to a week and the Hycross is ready for delivery.
The defective brake pad was changed under warranty and didn’t cost me anything. Since I had the Toyota Smiles service package to 20k kms, it only cost me 2k overall for the 10k service. Around 1.5k for the wheel alignment since I had requested it and 500 rs for the tyre rotation/balancing
Before taking delivery of the car, I noticed that they hadn’t fixed the wheel cladding or side moulding. The wheel cladding was explained away as being not glued on the ZXO but clipped on so apparently they are somewhat loose as is.
The side moulding is still slightly detached at the ends. Figured I would just get it fixed myself.
Sadly, the insect in the tail light was also left as is since it would involve removing the entire tail light assembly.
The steering trim creaking and the centre console creaking were explained away as being normal for the Hycross sadly. I’m guessing it’s due to the poor material quality of the plastic used.
The fuel level indicator changing when parked on inclines issue has been fixed thankfully.
As I was driving home, I realised the tyres were refilled to 35 psi except the front right tyre which was filled to 38 psi according to the TPMS system. No worries, I keep a tyre pressure gauge handy just for this. I stopped before entering the highway and just deflated the tyre with the gauge down to 35 psi to match the rest.
The ride home was uneventful. I was happy to notice that the engine noise had reduced after the oil change. It was the first oil change since I bought the car since OEMs don’t do the 1k kms oil change anymore after the break-in period.
I believe the first oil change is the most important to get rid of all the metal shavings and whatnot from a new engine. I would recommend doing the first oil change at your own cost at around 2-3k kms and then following the normal 10k intervals. I didn’t do it this time because I was unsure if it was needed for a hybrid since the engine isn’t running all the time + I wasn’t sure how it would work with the annual maintenance contract.
I also feel that the car has gotten slightly peppier but this might just be my imagination since the noise has gone down and the engine sounds less stressed. Or maybe they tweaked the hybrid system response in the system update.
The next morning I deflated all 4 tyres to the 33 psi as mentioned in the owner’s manual as well as the sticker on the side of the car.
Noticed that all 4 rims now had slight scratches or pock marks from being poked by tools. The pockmarks might look small but they are deep when you run your fingers over it. These rims were ceramic coated too.
Oh well, I will try to get it fixed at the next visit to the detailers. Won’t be doing wheel rotation/balancing from the dealership again.
Another thing I noticed is that now I can pair my phone/select Carplay when stopped in Drive or driving at crawling speeds. Earlier that option was greyed out unless the car was in park. ADAS, specifically the lane keep assist and pre-collision warning seems to be more intrusive now and I have turned down the setting in MID from normal to low.
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